Welcome to our ELDEN RING Classes Guide. A spoiler-free, beginner’s guide to class selection vocabulary.
ELDEN RING Classes Guide
A spoiler-free, beginner’s guide to class selection vocabulary.
Classes Guide
Summary
There are no class-exclusive items or abilities, everything is purely based off your stats and equipment. Thus, your starting class will only affect the first few hours of the game. Don’t fret too much over it.
Scaling effects are influenced by upgrade levels. Thus, pumping your main attack stat early on gives less of an effect. If you’re new to Souls games, you should focus on survivability instead: levelling your health, with mana and stamina when required. As you grow comfortable with your levels in these stats, you can start focusing on getting the stats needed to use the cool weapons you want to try out, and when you’ve settled on a loadout and playstyle, that’s when you start pumping offensive stats.
It’s usually better to be versatile than specialized, since you don’t know what challenges you’ll be facing on your first run.
Healing is very limited early in the game, so starting as a Prophet or Confessor to gain access to healing magic is probably the easiest as a newcomer. (Casting is slow, so use magic between fights and your Flask of Tears to heal in the middle of a fight)
- To be able to use more advanced equipment, level the stats indicated on the gear. Most melee weapons require some combination of strength and dexterity, occasionally with a sprinkle of a magical stat if it has innate elemental damage.
- To be able to wear heavier armor, level Strength to increase your maximal equip load.
- To be able to attune stronger magic, level the corresponding stat for the magic school of your choice (Intelligence, Faith or Arcane). Unlike in previous Souls games, there is no stat to increase the number of attunement slots. You will gain additional spell slots as you find a certain rare collectible.
Vagabond – ELDEN RING Classes Guide
- A noble traveller versed in all manner of weaponry. Jack of all trades, master of none…
- A balanced class starting with heavy armor, halberd, sword and shield. And when I say “heavy armor”, I mean, “so heavy you’re overencumbered and have an inferior dodge roll”. If you prefer dodging over blocking, you need to unequip some of your equipment to get under 70% equip load.
- The starting sword has a surprisingly long range, especially when used in thrusting attacks, but you probably want to stick to the halberd whenever convenient (i.e., when you’re not swarmed by fast enemies, and when you’re not fighting in tight corridors). Light attacks are thrusts with longer range, heavy attacks swings that can hit a large are around you. Holding the halberd in both hands speeds up the attacks and gives you greater reach, but of course it means you’re giving up your ability to block with the shield. The default weapon art is a running attack that can stunlock enemies and easily break a shielded enemy’s guard.
- Being able to use both Axe and Spear-type Ashes of War gives the halberd a lot of customizability later on, though its default weapon art is great for burst damage right out of the gate.
- Also be mindful of the halberd’s long reach while on horseback. Just holding it out to ready a heavy attack is powerful enough to kill many lesser enemies as you ride past, and this is an excellent way to clear the early camps and caravans.
- Has balanced stats allowing you to pivot into any playstyle relatively easily, though of course that also means they have no major advantages over any other class.
- Archetypes: Tank, Jack-of-all-trades
- Beginner–friendliness: Excellent
Warrior
- Seasoned mercenary and war veteran. Surely, war never changes?
- Has the highest dexterity, and dual-wields curved swords.
- Wielding two weapons of matching type allows you to enter the “power stance”, which lets you attack with both weapons at once for increased attack power at great expense to stamina. To use power-stanced attacks, use the left-hand attack buttons; to attack with just your primary weapon, use the right-hand buttons.
- Starts with a parrying shield which is unsuitable for regular blocking, so if you’re a beginner and not comfortable in your ability to parry and dodgeroll every attack, you might want to pick another class.
- The perfect class for fancy, dexterity-based playstyles taking advantage of the dual-wield moveset.
- Dexterity also speeds up spellcasting speed, and they start with above-average intelligence, so mixing in some magic in your playstyle will be easy.
- Archetypes: Swashbuckler, dual wielder, spellsword
- Beginner–friendliness: Low
Hero – ELDEN RING Classes Guide
- The heir to a barbarian chieftain, driven out by the Golden Order. Free wills will always be ridiculed by the powers that be.
- Has the highest strength, starting with a large axe. You’ll have an easy time breaking enemies’ guard, but attacks leave you open to enemy attacks, so be careful about large groups of enemies. Doubly so for the default weapon art, which is a sustained combo attack that can stunlock lesser foes, but which is slower and locks you into the combo until it finishes.
- One of the earliest caravans you can find in Western Limgrave guards a Greataxe, and if you enjoy the battleaxe you start with, you’re sure to love the Greataxe even more. Whether you want to explore further away or not, consider nabbing this axe before you leave.
- The optimal class if you like oversized, heavy weapons.
- Also has the second lowest magic stat investment, making this a good choice if you don’t intend to ever use magic and want to avoid “wasted” stat points.
- Archetypes: Barbarian, heavy weapons guy
- Beginner–friendliness: Average
Bandit
- Highwayman hoping to profit from the civil war. Whatever this golden order is, it sure sounds like it’d fetch a high price…
- Has high Dexterity and the highest Arcane, starting with a dagger, buckler, and shortbow.
- Not terribly strong in a direct encounter, relying instead on backstabs and cheesing enemies at a distance with arrows.
- The dagger has a very high critical damage multiplier, which applies to ripostes and backstabs. Fishing for backstabs and ripostes (special finishers usable after you poise-break, guard-break or parry an enemy) is considerably more effective than just stabbing your foes repeatedly.
- Holding the off-hand attack button allows you to aim a bow in first person, which is useful when fighting enemies at so long ranges you can’t lock on to them. Pestering an enemy with bow attacks from a long range allows you to draw them out one at a time instead of fighting them all at once, or even outright kill them before they pose a threat! Of course, the shortbow has a pretty short attack range and low power, but it makes up for it with speed. With a little training and some sleep arrows, you can end many encounters before they have a chance to begin.
- Arcane is used for some spells, but also influences item drop rate. The perfect class if you intend to focus on crafting or looking for rare items early on. But if you’re not, this is an advanced class for players that are comfortable learning parrying timings and enemy patterns, and probably not particularly easy to play if you’re completely new to the Souls series.
- Starts at the lowest level other than Wretch.
- Archetypes: Rogue, ninja
- Beginner–friendliness: Very low
Astrologer – ELDEN RING Classes Guide
- Scholar of the once-forbidden arts of precognition, now laid bare for anyone to study. Where books burn, people are soon to follow…
- Sorcerer class. Starts with the highest Intelligence and Mind, allowing them to cast powerful spells, and a lot of them. Also starts off with a powerful mix of area-of-effect and DPS spells allowing them to deal reliable damage right away.
- Since mana is also used to call upon Summoning Ashes, it’s also a solid starting choice for a summoner build, though the clerical classes probably are a better choice for that since they can heal their summons.
- Too physically weak to use many early weapons other than daggers and short swords. But magic has many advantages in both range and power, and being able to fight tougher enemies at a distance makes many encounters considerably easier.
- You will be reliant on magic attacks to deal damage, but don’t forget that elemental Ashes of War gives your melee weapons scaling with your magical stats.
- There are many different sorceries, and since your spell slots are limited, it’s important to attune the ones most suitable for the task at hand.
- Archetypes: Sorcerer, summoner
- Beginner–friendliness: Good
Prophet
- Once ridiculed as a doomsayer, then all the visions came to pass… but the people didn’t flock to your side, they ran in fear.
- Cleric class. Starts with the highest Faith. Uses miracle spells to heal and support, and a spear for offense.
- The spear is ineffective against groups due to its narrow attacks. For the best effect, use the range to your advantage and wield it two-handed.
- Unlike almost every other weapon, spears can be used to attack while blocking. Be aware that this is both slower and weaker than regular attacks. And of course, like most mage classes, the Prophet doesn’t start with a particularly good shield. Since you have decent Strength, you might want to replace it with a larger shield as soon as possible.
- Offensive miracles have a wild, unpredictable nature to them that lends themselves well for fighting groups of weaker enemies.
- Healing is very limited early on, so having access to healing spells makes the early game easier.
- Archetypes: Healer, summoner, pyromancer
- Beginner–friendliness: Good
Samurai – ELDEN RING Classes Guide
- Blood has been a common sight, but these lands yet know their inner peace… you can only hope they don’t forget.
- Has high Dexterity and the highest starting stamina, fighting with a katana that induces bleeding and a bow for ranged attacks, but doesn’t use a shield. Even with access to a shield, the two-handed moveset of a katana is generally preferrable with faster attacks and greater posture damage, and of course you need both hands to use a bow.
- More attuned to dodging than damage mitigation.
- Bleed damage is proportional to enemy health, so the uchigatana gives you an edge against larger enemies. Of course, only enemies with blood can bleed.
- The weapon art is an iaido slash, which takes some time to prepare but comes out very quickly once you actually start the attack. Best used when an enemy is playing defensively, unleashed the moment they drop their guard.
- The longbow is a slow but powerful bow, most useful for sniping enemies from a distance instead of engaging them directly. Holding the off-hand attack button allows you to aim a bow in first person, which is useful when fighting enemies at so long ranges you can’t lock on to them. Pestering an enemy with bow attacks from a long range allows you to draw them out one at a time instead of fighting them all at once, or even outright kill them before they pose a threat!
- Hitting an enemy’s weak point (such as the head for humanoids) will deal critical damage and stun them, this is usually only possible when manually aiming the bow.
- Starts with the lowest magic stat allotment, making them the perfect choice if you have no intent to use magic and want to avoid wasting stat points.
- Archetypes: Samurai, ranger
- Beginner–friendliness: Good
Prisoner
- A once-noble heretic, imprisoned for unsavory experiments with the arcane. But without challenge, how are we to improve?
- A hybrid sorcerer/melee class, with access to both physical damage and glintstone sorceries. Starts without the powerful sorceries of the Astrologer, so you will rely on them mostly for situational support.
- Magic Glintblade is a homing spell with decent power, but the projectile doesn’t fire until a few seconds after you deploy it. This has its uses, though: it gives you just enough time to break an enemy’s guard with a melee attack to make sure they don’t dodge out of the way of the projectile!
- Starts with an estoc, a hybrid sword which has light thrusting attacks as well as heavy slashing attacks. Mastery of this weapon requires getting comfortable with varying your moves to fit the situation, and it’s particularly difficult to use against groups of smaller enemies.
- Their starting shield is a buckler, a parrying shield with very generous window of timing. If you want to learn parry timings, this is probably the easiest class to start with. Additionally, the shield slightly boosts some ailment resistances, but only when held in an active hand.
- The iron mask has surprisingly good defenses, but you might want to replace your starting rags with some proper armor as soon as possible to compliment it.
- Archetypes: Spellsword, ninja
- Beginner–friendliness: Low
Confessor – ELDEN RING Classes Guide
- A seeker of sinners, sword always at the ready. Blind faith is dangerous, so you will be Our eyes.
- A paladin-style hybrid cleric/melee class with solid weaponry to compliment their miracle-based spells. Also starts with a metal kite shield, which is a reliable defensive tool for most early-game enemies.
- The broadsword lacks thrusting attacks and only has wide swings, which makes it easy to use against groups of enemies, but which leaves you open to counterattacks from faster enemies. You should get into a habit of using jumping attacks when using this weapon, both to leave yourself less open for counterattacks, and taking advantage of its higher-than-average posture breaking ability.
- An excellent choice for beginners, with access to both reliable melee damage, reliable defenses, and healing. Also starts at the highest level out of all classes.
- Urgent Heal is a very fast healing spell which can even be cast while moving, but it only heals a miniscule amount of HP. It does not heal allies, only yourself.
- Assassin’s Approach is a spell that makes your movement inaudible, allowing you to sneak up on enemies more easily, including running at full speed. It makes stealth much easier, as long as you don’t let yourself get seen.
- Archetypes: Paladin, healer, jack-of-all-trades
- Beginner–friendliness: Excellent
Wretch – ELDEN RING Classes Guide
- Outcast deprived of everything but their humanity. Some say, for good reason.
- A joke class intended for challenge runs, starting with no armor, the lowest starting level, and only a wooden club for offense. You probably don’t want to pick it for your first run.
- Their main saving grace is perfectly balanced stats, allowing you to dabble in all playstyles without a large investment, and they start out at level 1, making levelling up cheap and easy compared to the other classes. Of course, it also means they don’t start out particularly good at anything…
